Situated on fertile floodplains and well known for its abundant agriculture, Green Hills (as it was originally called) supported the colony through desperate times.

All of the Governors who held office between 1789 and 1822, from Phillip to Brisbane, received the same Letter of Instruction regarding the disposal of the "waste lands of the Crown" that Britain claimed as her own.

[1] On 15 July 1815, the Sydney Gazette carried the following public notice:[1] "A large and commodious House having been some time since erected, and lately completed, at a very considerable expense, in the Town of Windsor, for an Inn; and a suitable person having been engaged by the Proprietor for keeping the same, Notice is hereby given, that the said Inn, called "The Macquarie Arms", and kept by Thomas Ranson, who formerly was an Innkeeper in England, will be opened for the accommodation of the Public on Monday the 31st of this present Month of July".

Governor Macquarie wrote about the event in his diary:-[1] "I gave Mr. Fitzgerald a large allotment in the square on the express condition of his building immediately thereon a handsome commodious inn of brick or stone and to be at least two stories high..".

Richard Fitzgerald and his family lived in a house alongside the Macquarie Arms Hotel in George Street, Windsor.

[1] The hotel was occupied in the late 1830s by army officers stationed at Windsor and it became known as the Mess House and referred to as such in Armstrong's map of the town (1842).

Its central position in Windsor and its early date and interesting associations make The Macquarie Arms a colonial building of some importance.

[1] Macquarie Arms Hotel was listed on the New South Wales State Heritage Register on 2 April 1999 having satisfied the following criteria.

The Macquarie Arms Hotel is closely associated with a number of significant social and political figures in the Hawkesbury District during the period of its early development.

The building of the hotel was an express condition by Governor Macquarie of his grant of a large allotment of land to Richard Fitzgerald.

The hotel was built to specific requirements made by Governor Macquarie that the inn be handsome, commodious, of brick or stone and to be at least two stories high.

[1] Richard Fitzgerald, who promptly built the hotel in accordance with Governor Macquarie's specifications, had arrived as a convict in New South Wales in 1791.

The 1828 census lists him as the possessor of 2000 acres of land, and in conjunction with his farming pursuits, he remained active in local affairs and was elected president of the Hawkesbury Benevolent Society which managed the hospital at Windsor.